Before beginning the assignment I wanted to know more about Adobe Photoshop and Gimp. After poking around on Gimp and reading about Photoshop Elements features on the Adobe website, I opted for the more user-friendly Adobe product. However, if I am being completely honest, I would say I did not expect to learn much with Photoshop Elements!
My prior experience editing photos has involved iPhoto, Instagram and an iPad app called Photo Editor by Axiem Systems. The Photo Editor app is definitely the most robust in that the user can add numerous enhancements, effects, stickers, frames, etc. For example, I have used it to put a princess crown on a photo of my dog since she seems to think she is royalty. I am mentioning this app to set the tone for how I already considered myself a decent photo editor. Prior to the assignment I was well versed in adjusting contrast, saturation and sharpness, and due to the numerous light-eyed people in my family I could remove red-eye without issue.
In an effort to really challenge myself, I opened a heavily pixelated photo of my dog and me. I had taken this photo of the two of us using the reverse camera option on my iPhone. Aside from the lack of sharpness, the light to the left in the photo is practically blinding. Also, my blue eyes look black and Jordan’s green eyes blend in with her coat color. Lastly, the photo has heavy red saturation towards the right side from the contrast with the blinding light.
As I opened the photo in Photoshop, I was awed by the detail in the editing capability. I first moved from the “Quick” to the “Guided” editing screen. I began adjusting brightness, contrast and sharpness. I then explored the capability (or rather power) of “perfect portrait”. With Smart blur and blur brush I was able to remove so much of the pixelated appearance. I was also able to enhance my facial features by brightening my eyes, darkening my eyebrows and whitening my teeth. I did have a little trouble selecting the specific location of only my teeth! On the first few attempts I accidentally whitened my lips and my chin. Lastly, I played with the shadows and highlights under “lighten and darken”. At this point I had a photo with minimal pixelation, less blinding light on the left and greater sharpness in the image. Both Jordan and I had lighter eyes and my eyebrows appeared darker than they are naturally. I began playing with a few photo effects, like vignette effect and low key. I have always been a fan of black-and-white photos, so I enjoyed these effects without color. However, in the end, I canceled these two effects and instead explored different filters. I tried artistic, distorted and pixelated options, but in the end I went with charcoal sketch. One of my hobbies (prior to graduate school) is drawing in charcoal, so I absolutely loved the charcoal drawing filter on my photo! Because of the filter, many of my other changes are probably difficult to see, but, where I use to have an annoyingly pixelated photo, I now have an awesome charcoal photo of my dog and me.
Before beginning the assignment I wanted to know more about Adobe Photoshop and Gimp. After poking around on Gimp and reading about Photoshop Elements features on the Adobe website, I opted for the more user-friendly Adobe product. However, if I am being completely honest, I would say I did not expect to learn much with Photoshop Elements!
My prior experience editing photos has involved iPhoto, Instagram and an iPad app called Photo Editor by Axiem Systems. The Photo Editor app is definitely the most robust in that the user can add numerous enhancements, effects, stickers, frames, etc. For example, I have used it to put a princess crown on a photo of my dog since she seems to think she is royalty. I am mentioning this app to set the tone for how I already considered myself a decent photo editor. Prior to the assignment I was well versed in adjusting contrast, saturation and sharpness, and due to the numerous light-eyed people in my family I could remove red-eye without issue.
In an effort to really challenge myself, I opened a heavily pixelated photo of my dog and me. I had taken this photo of the two of us using the reverse camera option on my iPhone. Aside from the lack of sharpness, the light to the left in the photo is practically blinding. Also, my blue eyes look black and Jordan’s green eyes blend in with her coat color. Lastly, the photo has heavy red saturation towards the right side from the contrast with the blinding light.
As I opened the photo in Photoshop, I was awed by the detail in the editing capability. I first moved from the “Quick” to the “Guided” editing screen. I began adjusting brightness, contrast and sharpness. I then explored the capability (or rather power) of “perfect portrait”. With Smart blur and blur brush I was able to remove so much of the pixelated appearance. I was also able to enhance my facial features by brightening my eyes, darkening my eyebrows and whitening my teeth. I did have a little trouble selecting the specific location of only my teeth! On the first few attempts I accidentally whitened my lips and my chin. Lastly, I played with the shadows and highlights under “lighten and darken”. At this point I had a photo with minimal pixelation, less blinding light on the left and greater sharpness in the image. Both Jordan and I had lighter eyes and my eyebrows appeared darker than they are naturally. I began playing with a few photo effects, like vignette effect and low key. I have always been a fan of black-and-white photos, so I enjoyed these effects without color. However, in the end, I canceled these two effects and instead explored different filters. I tried artistic, distorted and pixelated options, but in the end I went with charcoal sketch. One of my hobbies (prior to graduate school) is drawing in charcoal, so I absolutely loved the charcoal drawing filter on my photo! Because of the filter, many of my other changes are probably difficult to see, but, where I use to have an annoyingly pixelated photo, I now have an awesome charcoal photo of my dog and me.